Wooden Plate Great Falls MT

All you'll need is a small face plate, a medium-sized bowl gouge (3⁄8-in. to 1⁄2-in.), a round-nose scraper, some masking tape and alarge, thick chunk of wood for the chuck. A plate blank that's 9- to10-in. wide works best. It can be glued-up or cut from a wide board,just as long as one side is flat and smooth.

Wooden Plate

Wooden Plate

Got an offcut from a beautifully figured board? Turn it into aplate! Standard 3⁄4-in. wood and a shop-made chuck are all you need.The trick is to figure out how to hold such a thin piece of wood on thelathe. It's so thin, there's hardly anything to grab onto. Here's asafe and simple system for turning a plate from thin wood.

All you'll need is a small face plate, a medium-sized bowl gouge(3⁄8-in. to 1⁄2-in.), a round-nose scraper, some masking tape and alarge, thick chunk of wood for the chuck. A plate blank that's 9- to10-in. wide works best. It can be glued-up or cut from a wide board,just as long as one side is flat and smooth. You'll need that flatsurface in order to glue the plate blank onto a mounting block. To makethe blank, cut off a square piece from the wide board and cut it into arough circle with a bandsaw. Draw a 3-in. circle in the center of theblank's smooth side. Then make a 3-in.-dia. mounting block from a pieceof 1-in.-thick wood that's been surfaced on both sides. Screw themounting block onto a small face plate. Now follow the photo sequenceand create your own stunning plate.

PHOTO 1:Gluethe mounting block onto the plate blank. Use medium- to thick-viscositycyanoacrylate (CA) glue. It dries quickly, so you'll be ready to turnin two to three minutes. Adjust your lathe to run at its lowest speed.Then mount the face plate on the lathe and true up the face and edge ofthe blank with a bowl gouge.

PHOTO 2:Round the plate's rim with the bowl gouge turned on its side. Thisprevents the gouge from catching and is called a “closed cut.” Move inthe direction of the arrow and swing the handle of the gouge around thecorner. Ride the bevel of the gouge on the plate, keeping the cut verylight.

PHOTO 3:Flattenthe face of the plate. Work from the outside to the center. Keep thebevel of the gouge rubbing against the plate to make this shearing cut.Because you are working with thin material, use light shearing cuts,especially around the rim. You can place your hand behind the rim toreduce vibration.

PHOTO 4:Cut a cove to define the rim. Drop the handle of the gouge below thelevel of the tool rest so the gouge won't catch. Keep the bevel ridingon the plate. Next dish out the center of the plate with shearing cuts. Measure the depth of the plate before you cut too deep.If you're careful you should be able to make a very smooth surfaceacross the entire face of the plate with the gouge. You can move righton to sanding. But if you've had some trouble and there are tool marksyou can't get out, reach for a scraper.

PHOTO 5:Scrapethe face of the plate with light cuts for a smooth surface. Move fromthe center out to the edge. Raise the handle of a round-nose scraperabove the level of the tool rest so its cutting edge won&...

Using a 3/16-in. slot-cutting bit, rout grooves for splines in all the stiles and rails (Photo 2, Fig. A, Parts F1-F3 and S1-S4). All the grooves have the same offset, a 5/16-in. lip at the front and a 1/4-in. lip at the back (Fig. A, Detail 3). The front frame stiles (F1) and the front side frame stiles (S1) receive two slots.